Portrait Of Gracia Lees 1875

Sir John Everett Millais painted this portrait of Gracia Lees in oil on canvas sometime in the mid-19th century. Millais was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of artists who rejected the academic art of the Royal Academy, favouring instead the intense colours and complex compositions of late medieval and early Renaissance art. In this portrait, Gracia Lees is shown in a white dress and holding a basket in a verdant landscape. The Pre-Raphaelites were interested in realism. The image constructs meaning through its visual codes, suggesting innocence through the girl’s youth and white dress, as well as the natural setting. The portrait can be understood in the context of Victorian England, a time marked by strict social codes, rapid industrialisation, and the rise of a wealthy middle class. To better understand a portrait like this, art historians research the biographies of the artist and sitter, as well as the social and institutional context. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.